Gaps in embroidery

[sschroed2]

I was wondering if anyone might be able to tell me why I'm getting gaps in my embroidery. I have a graphic that I auto digitized and when it sews out it has several areas where it stitches top down, stops goes to another area then comes back to the same area and stitches bottom up. Problem is it leaves a gap between the top and the bottom. Design shop does not show a gap, it looks perfect.

I have tried changing stitch direction, angles, density, with and without solvy and nothing seems to improve it. I'm sewing on a 10oz sweatshirt. I have checked the pressure foot height, changed needles, changed bobbins, doesn't seem to matter what I do it will not fill in the gap. I have watched it sew and it is truly is just not sewing across that area. The gap is to large to cover with a color pen. The sweatshirt is Heather gray and the thread is a medium blue so it really shows.

Any ideas? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Sue Schroeder

[Judy]

Hi Sue. Autodigitizing is a great start, and a little manual work always makes it better. Click on either the bottom piece and drag the top of it up and just a touch over the top one, or click on the top piece and drag the bottom of it down and just a touch over the bottom one. Best of luck!

[sschroed2]

I forgot to mention that the area is a complex fill and there are no lines or points to move to overlap the gap.

[sschroed2]

So appreciate your responses. I've been trying changing the entry & exit points to no avail. Doesn't seem to matter where I put them. It's an odd graphic, but it's only one color and just doesn't look like it should be that difficult. Is it possible there could be a calibration error with the machine?

[sschroed2]

Yesterday I did 3 test sews of the same design on the same weight of sweatshirt material, only difference was test sews were on sweatshirt that had not been washed. But after ready so many of user group emails, decided I should so the actual sweats first. Put new 75/11 bp needle in and even sewed out 3 names on test material before starting the actual design. Everything was fine on names, all went to pot on design. Plus it seems the more I try to sew, the worse it gets. Which is why I was wondering if there could be a calibration issue.

[Russell Silva]

Do you have underlay in the fill? If not, try adding underlay and see if it helps.

[sschroed2]

I have not tried underlay yet. Should I use standard underlay? Should I change density for fill if I add underlay?
Sue

[Russell Silva]

I would start with standard underlay at first, then try making adjustments from there.

[HERB]

Would you send me your design?

[sschroed2]

Herb, I would be happy to send the design. What email should I send it to?

[Steve]

You can also send it to me but I won't be able to look at it until tonight when I get home from my full-time job.

[signman]

on th gap problem...sounds like what I see on fleece all the time...sewing on opposite sides before the middle-and the excess fleece has no where to go but 'pucker' and you get what you think is a gap. I saw it real bad using stitch saver as the full body of a limosine for jacket back-over 10" across.
Solution: first, make a separate file for that whole area and lay down a cross hatch underlayment, 50-60 stitch density to tie it to your backing. Then, if you can't control the sewing sequence, delete that original 'area' and create a new one but as 2 or 3 separate but OVERLAPPING areas with the same fill pattern.
Set them so the MIDDLE area sews first, moves to the top, sews that, then moves to the bottom and sews that one. If there is a border around it, you can use a walk normal stitch to go from #2 to #3 without a thread cut/needle lift time wasting jump. The border will hide your travel stitch.
I do it all the time-and with a little practice on the overlap, you will never see the 'line' where the pieces all meet.
You need to go from center 'out' to push the excess 'pile' of fabric out of the way. Always set your designs like sewing a hat...from the center out-and you won't run into this.

[levelbest]

I am going to post what sharon said:

"This is due to the "push" and "pull" of the fabric. You need to make sure you have a good "underlay" under the embroidery to help hold the fabric in place."

Sharon

[Aaron]

When you have a complex fill that is not sewing from on side to the other or top to bottom but instead is sewing one side and then sewing the other side to meet in the middle the push and pull of the fabric is going to sometimes cause this gap. One way to help this is proper underlay but even that may not always work. ANother thing you can do is under the properties of the fill there is a window called "overlap". You can put a number in for the number of overlap lines you want. Since you say you have a pretty large gap you may try to start with 5 or so. This will cause the fill to overlap in areas where the fill comes togethere. I just had this problem with some text that was done in 2 colors on a large back and I put in some overlap lines and it fixed the problem.

[sschroed2]

I wanted to extend my sincere appreciation to all whom responded to my call for help regarding the grapping. Adding extensive underlay and an overlap of 5 did the trick. Thank You to all, and thank God for the Amaya Users Group.
Sue Schroeder